ACism and global warming

[FooSH]

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Okay then, lets say that everyone who is affected by a specific polluter has a successful day in court and they receive damages. That could mean millions of individuals all getting payout from one company. Could that not make any form of pollution heavily -EV. After all, you know how much people love their litigation. What effect would that have on industry?

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If you're worried about limitations on industry, you should be equally worried about governments imposing anti-pollution rules on them. It's not like government officials have some special status that allows them to perfectly balance costs and benefits. In fact, many people agree that governments are substantially WORSE at this than the market.

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But I'm not aware of current government regulations that would lead to such a destructive outcome. There is a a definite possibility that AC could. Even though it's only a possibility, I'd rather not play russian roulette on such an important outcome.

I'm certain some people trust the markets more because they haven't been given enough power to really [censored] things up yet.

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And does this not mean that the economic and ecological fate of the world will be decided by one judge/arbiter. What if his dog just died? It's not like there's a higher court to appeal to.

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It's unlikely that a single judge will effectively rule against all economic and ecological development, similar to how a government leader isn't going to be able to declare Jump of a Bridge Day and watch as everyone jumps of bridges. And there's no higher court to appeal to when you don't like the government's actions, either.

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Why is it unlikely? Unless legal precedents wouldn't exist in AC, but I don't see why not. And getting compensation for a reduced quality of life =/= jumping of a bridge.

Not really sure how thing work in the US, but in the UK there's 3 tiers (local, national and European) plus the ability to appeal. Things can still get [censored] up, but at lest you have safety nets against recently bereaved arbiters.